India is home to one of the largest disabled populations in the world. In India, according to the 2011 Census, 2.21% of the population has one or multiple types of disabilities

Disabled rights over the time in India :-

• After a series of petitions and protests, the government passed the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (or PWD Act), which reserved three percent of government posts for those in the PWD category. With this people suffering from disability found visibility in educational institutions and government services.
• In the new millennium, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2006. India signed and ratified this convention in 2007. The Act fixes responsibility of the Central and State Governments, local bodies to provide services, facilities to people with disabilities to provide equal opportunities for participating as productive citizens of the country
• Community linkage:- THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR WELFARE OF PERSONS WITH AUTISM, CEREBRAL PALSY, MENTAL RETARDATION AND MULTIPLE DISABILITIES ACT, 1999 empowered persons with disabilities to live their life freely and independently and to bring them close to the community they belong
• NATIONAL POLICY ON DISABILITY, 2006-A comprehensive national policy was enacted by the government of India on disability covering major areas like education, employment, access, support services, social services etc. however, this policy also needs to be modified in the light of the convention.
• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was a major initiative taken by the government to provide basic education to all the children including the disabled section.
• There are 42 special employment exchanges constituted in India for providing job opportunities to the disabled persons.
• Rights for disabilities act 2016:
  1. The 2016 Act which replaces the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 recognises 21 kinds of disabilities compared to the previous seven, including dwarfism, speech and language disability, and three blood disorders.
  2. 21 kinds of disabilities compared to the previous seven, including dwarfism, speech and language disability, and three blood disorders.
  3. The new Act also increased the quota for disability reservation in higher educational institutions from 3% to 5% and in government jobs from 3% to 4%, for a more inclusive society.. The 2016 Act is expected to give full effect to the United Nations Convention.
  4. Act emphasises the creation of special courts, and speedy trials and special public prosecutors for offences committed against disabled persons under the Act. The law also makes private companies equally liable for violating the Act.
  5. The 2016 Act is noticeably a sea change in perception and marches ahead with regard to (rights of) persons with disabilities and the role of the States, local authorities, educational institutions and companies. The statute operates in a broad spectrum and the stress is laid to protect the rights and provide punishment for its violation.
• Accessible India Campaign which will focus on making India a disabled-friendly country. In order  to enable  persons with disabilities to gain universal access and independent living the government  launched  its ambitious  “Accessible India Campaign” (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) which seeks to make at least 50 percent of all government buildings in the national capital and all state capitals “fully accessible”.
• Government launches ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ to mark the next chapter of its flagship Campaign, the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’. The ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ helps the industries and corporates to participate in the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) by voluntarily evaluating their readiness for making the workplace accessible for Persons with Disabilities.
• Sugamaya Pustakalaya is   an online platform that makes accessible content available to print-disabled people was also launched .The library houses publications across diverse subjects and languages and multiple accessible formats. Books are available in Accessible formats for people with visual impairment and other print disabilities. 
• A lot of emphasis was laid on education of the students suffering from disabilities. As many as 2,747 Students with Disabilities (SwD) were benefited so far under the Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme, which was launched during 2014-15. 
• Skilling India is one of the priority areas of the government, so also for persons with disabilities. As many as 62,232 Persons with Disabilities have been helped under the National Action Plan for Skill Development of PwDs scheme launched in 2015. Providing vocational training and creating employment opportunities are aimed at improving quality of life of the persons with disabilities.
• Mental health care act 2017 :
  1. The right to mental healthcare is the core of the Act and represents the government’s attempt to address the neglect of this aspect of healthcare for decades
  2. The law also requires the government to make provisions for persons with mental illness to live in the community and not be segregated in large institutions. The government must now make provisions for half-way homes, group homes and other such facilities for rehabilitating persons with mental health problems.

Concerns:-

• Implementation remains abysmal. For instance, data from the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People show that 84% of seats for persons with disabilities lie vacant in top universities.
• One-size-fits-all approach is unhelpful for disabled persons. Levels and types of disabilities differ and so do needs.
• Most buildings are not disabled friendly despite under accessible India campaign all ministries are instructed to make their buildings accessible
• India still lags behind in removing infrastructural ,institutional and attitudinal barriers
• The absence of disabled people from most mainstream development programmes has increased inequality, led to missed international targets, and is slowing economic and social progress in communities across the world. 
• Technology failure:- Websites, software and mobile apps from vendors and service providers do not comply with accessibility guidelines. This makes them inaccessible for visually impaired persons who make use of assistive technologies like screen reading software, braille displays, etc.
• Policies lack budgeting support
  1. Most policies are simple guidelines and often lack appropriate budgetary or funding support for implementation and penalty for non-adherence. This leads to lesser efforts towards compliance
  2. There is an absence of periodic stakeholder coordination; lack of harmony between policies and the regulation across the world to adhere to uniform standards; lack of research and development, lack of aggressive campaigning for accessible ICTs, lack of direct involvement of PwDs in product development; high cost of specialised assistive technology.

Way forward:-

• Inclusion of people with disabilities into everyday activities involves practices and policies designed to identify and remove barriers such as physical, communication, and attitudinal, that hamper individuals’ ability to have full participation in society, the same as people without disabilities. Inclusion involves:
• Getting fair treatment from others (non-discrimination)
• Making products, communications, and the physical environment more usable by as many people as possible (universal design)
• Modifying items, procedures, or systems to enable a person with a disability to use them to the maximum extent possible (reasonable accommodations)
• Eliminating the belief that people with disabilities are unhealthy or less capable of doing things (stigma, stereotypes).
• For achieving a truly inclusive information society, persons with disabilities must be able to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) with equal ease. This can be made possible only if the accessibility of ICTs is on the top of the agenda of manufacturers and service providers.
• While programmes such as ‘Digital India’ envisage inclusive growth and a digitally empowered society, the benefits of ICT have not reached all the sections so far. 
• Disability inclusion involves input from people with disabilities, generally through disability-focused and independent living organizations, in program or structural design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• There is a massive lack of awareness among the stakeholders as well as credible research on ICT for persons with disabilities. Non-inclusion of user groups in research and product development is another issue which should be addressed.
• Care must be taken to ensure disability inclusive development

Conclusion:-

• Hopefully, the rights based legislation with more Rights and Entitlements and strong monitoring agencies at the National and State Levels and the various schemes and campaigns  launched by the government will  go a long way in achieving  empowerment  and mainstreaming of the  Persons with Disabilities in the society.